Louis Pasteur at the table

At Pasteur's table, one does not say 'starter, main course, dessert': the order follows the provincial bourgeois meal. A soup or cheese preparation opens the meal, followed by a meat dish in sauce (the centerpiece for special occasions), accompanied by local wines. Fruit preserves and creamy sweets close the service or comfort the convalescent. The whole is paced by the products of the Jura — Comté cheese, morels, Arbois cherries, and vin jaune — and served at fixed hours, as the scientist's cherished regularity demanded.

The absolute emblem of the Jura and of Pasteur's life: this Savagnin wine aged under a veil of yeasts in the barrel directly links the family cellar in Arbois to the scientist's *Studies on Wine*. The yeast — that 'infinitesimally small' being he rehabilitated — becomes the signature ingredient here, in the glass as well as in the chicken sauce.